17 Chapter 17

"Victoria, wait," Tony cried. "This is not right. Let me go!"

"Let you go?" Victoria said, pretending to be surprised. "I haven't even caught you yet."

Tony stepped backward till he felt the door behind his back.

Victoria was only inches away from him. She drew closer and closer and closer...

"It seems like you are a virgin," she declared, her face too close to Tony's. "Or Gay. What kind of guy would not take advantage of this opportunity? Do you know how many guys are dying to sleep with me."

"I am a virgin. Now let me go," Tony said quickly. He was speaking the truth. Even if it wasn't the truth, he would have said the same just to get rid of her.

She pulled her face away from him. She stood there with her arms crossed over her partly exposed chest and said, "You are not lying?"

Tony shook his head vigorously.

She checked him out, from top to bottom, and said, "That's fine. I can make an exception for you. Promise me that you will follow my lead and not whine unnecessarily."

Tony cleared his voice and said, "I can understand how inconvenient it is to be a nymphomaniac, but unfortunately I cannot help you with this one. You are asking the wrong person for help."

Victoria burst into sinister laughter.

"First of all, you ARE the right person. And secondly, I am not a nympho."

"You aren't? But you said..."

"That was a bluff, mister. I am not as honest as you. I lied so that it would be less awkward and more convincing to you."

Tony shook his head in exasperation. "Well, that did not work out as planned."

"It was worth a try," she said, rolling her eyes.

"Anyway, now that everything's cleared, you know that I want to have sex with you not because I am a nympho but I am genuinely interested in you."

Tony immediately protested. "Listen, Victoria, I bet there are tons of guys dying to sleep with you. So you better pick a guy like that and not me. I am not interested in sleeping with you."

She eyed him lecherously and said, "The fact that you are denying me so strongly makes me want to have sex with you more. The forbidden fruit tastes the sweetest."

Tony realized he had to intervene before the situation escalated further. He hoped that it wasn't too late already.

Tony gently pushed her away holding her shoulders and said, "I am glad to hear that a girl wants to have sex with me so badly, but unfortunately I cannot do this. I am sorry. I need to leave."

"So what, you are just going to throw away this once in a lifetime opportunity?"

"Yes, if you put it that away."

Victoria stared into his eyes for a while without blinking.

"You passed the test," she announced.

"Excuse me?"

"That was a test. Couldn't you tell? I was pretty convincing actually. You know what, acting is a profession I am seriously considering nowadays, and this incident is going to motivate me more."

Tony stood there completely stupified not knowing how to react.

What is she talking about? Test? She was testing me?

"You might not be a nympho, but you are a psycho for sure."

"Haha, I get that a lot," replied Victoria.

Suddenly, the calling bell rang. Tony just hoped that it wasn't any of her parents.

"Aah, right on time," said Victoria and opened the door.

It was a food delivery person. He handed her a huge bag filled with packaged foods. She paid using her debit card.

As the man left, she locked the door again and turned to Tony.

"It's Dinner time. Let's grab a seat and eat these hot, delicious things, shall we?"

She walked over to the same couch and put the bag on the floor.

Tony followed her like a hypnotized person. He was having a hard time making sense of the things that were going on. In such a short time, so many unexpected events took place that his brain froze. But one thing was clear to him, that the girl wasn't normal. In fact, she was far from being normal.

As Tony sat beside her, she said, "Let's see what we got here." She took out the packages one by one and kept them on the table that stood between them.

"Prawn pasta in pesto...I really hope you are not allergic to prawns... Here are the garlic bread, one Margherita pizza - large, caramel walnut tarts... what's this one? Ooh, chicken lasagna. Yummy! Tiramisu - two, sounds delicious!"

As she emptied the entire bag onto the table, she said, "There you go, all your favorite foods at one place."

"That's very racist, you know," said Tony. "Also, tarts are French."

"Didn't know, didn't care." She said while opening the food packets. "What's the Italian expression for 'Bon appetite'?"

"I am not sure," he said. "I am living at this place since I was born. We don't speak much Italian at home either."

"Ok. Never mind. Bon appetite."

She had ordered too much food for just the two of them. There were a lot of leftovers. Victoria insisted that he took the food with him but Tony directly refused. He suggested that she put the food in the fridge and eat them later. Victoria replied by saying that the day she would have to eat leftover foods would be the day she kills herself. Eventually, it was settled that she would give the food away to her maid the next morning.

Tony was too full to even walk around. He wondered how he would return all the way back to his home. It was the best Italian food he ever had besides his mom's homemade food, so he couldn't resist himself.

"You look like you need a crane to get up," Victoria said while wiping her mouth with a tissue.

"Haha, no need for that."

"Don't be shy. You know I can afford a crane, right? If you want, I can order one just now."

"I would rather walk."

"Then let me drop you at the station. My driver will be downstairs."

"That won't be necessary."

The fact that she paid so much for the food, hurt his male ego. He wouldn't let her do any more damage to it.

"So we are not going to have sex tonight?" said Victoria.

"Definitely not."

"Too bad. But someday we have to."

Tony threw a long hard look on her face. It was hard for him to decipher whether she said that jokingly or not.

"Let me know when you want to do it," said Tony.

"What, the sex?" Victoria cried, her eyes glistened.

"No, the picture. I came because we were supposed to take a photo of us."

"Ohh that one. I even forgot about that contest. It's so stupid."

Of course, she did. The contest would give her fame and money, which she already had in plenty. Maybe she registered out of curiosity. Given how impulsive she was, it wouldn't be a surprise to him if that was the case.

She reached into his trousers pocket and brought out his smartphone in one swift action.

"Excuse me," he protested, "Haven't you heard of the word called 'privacy'?"

"Yeah, like a social media model would know what that term is supposed to mean."

That's deep, he thought.

"Unlock the phone for me."

He followed her instruction reluctantly. As if he had any other option!

Victoria took a selfie of them and posted it on the contest website through his account. She tagged herself in the picture as well. It was as par the contest guidelines. Not that it mattered to her, but if she was doing something, she would do it right.

"There you go. Happy? Now get lost."

She shoved him out of her apartment.

"Don't forget that you owe me one hot, steamy sex."

Tony laughed. "I don't owe you anything, except the money you spent on the food probably."

"We will see. Goodbye."

She closed the door hard on his face.

Tony stood there looking at the door. He recalled the strange experience he had that day.

What a crazy night! What a crazy girl!

Inside her apartment, Victoria opened the contest website on her phone and looked at the photo they had just taken.

"Tony Giordano," she murmured to herself. "My sweet new prey. I am going to devour you, baby!"